The headline on ESPN.com's NFL page reads "Mel Kiper re-grades the 2012 draft and admits he was wrong about Seattle", but it's an Insider column. Can anyone sum up his comments? Was "I'm an ignorant tool" one of them?

Without looking at it, I can say it probably was, but only as part of the sentence. The whole sentence would read: "You're going to have to fork over some cold, hard cash if you're going to find out whether I say I'm an ignorant tool."

"The ultimate number is W's, and that’s what matters in Santa Clara. As such, Jed York does not own the 49ers; Russell Wilson does." - Paul Gutierrez

He changed his original post-draft grade (C-) to an A. Gives credit to Schneider and Carroll. Kind of gets wish washy by saying "let's be clear: I think the Seahawks drafted guys they really wanted, and with a plan in mind for how to use them." No kidding Mel, you mean front offices don't just follow who you think they should draft? You don't say!

He's all over Wilson's jock, of course. Tried to explain his hesitation with the pick of Wilson by saying we already had Flynn, which doesn't mean jack sh*t since you should be assessing the draft picks exclusively and not where they fit on a roster. Says if Wilson was 6'2", he would have been a top-5 pick.

Waffles on why he doubted Wagner ... still questions Irvin (which is fair). Doesn't believe he will be an every down DE, but of course that's not why we drafted him.

Calls the draft (now) "exceptional" and a "defining one for the franchise based on Wilson alone."

Post-draft grade: C-Summary: Give John Schneider and Pete Carroll all the credit in the world. I had major questions on value and even need with some of their picks, and in most cases, the Seahawks proved me wrong. At the time I wrote, "Let's be clear: I think the Seahawks drafted guys they really wanted, and with a plan in mind for how to use them." Did they ever. Russell Wilson might be the defining pick of the draft, already a star and a guy Seattle got at No. 75 overall. I really liked Wilson as a prospect, and said on the set I thought he'd be "a great test case" for short quarterbacks. My question of the pick also had to do with the fact that Seattle had acquired Matt Flynn. If Wilson had been 6-foot-2, I think he would have been a top-5 pick -- said it then, say it now. Is that evaluation still reasonable? Has Wilson proven that short QBs can't all be lumped together? Ultimately, evaluators will still have questions about whether short QBs can succeed because they simply have so few of them to evaluate. The sample size for guys at Wilson's size who've succeeded as he has is so small that not only is Wilson almost unique, I don't see a QB like him coming along for years. But there's no way around the fact that he was a great pick, perhaps the best of the draft when you consider where he was taken.

I also had questions about the value of Bobby Wagner at No. 47 overall, but he was a home run, an impact starter and a guy who will be a fixture for years to come. Robert Turbin, Jeremy Lane and Greg Scruggs also look like great picks. The one pick I really questioned then and still feel the same way about is Bruce Irvin at No. 15 overall. There's no question Irvin can rush the passer, but that's really all he can do, and I still don't see him as a good value at that spot because he's so one-dimensional. I wrote then, "I wouldn't be surprised if Irvin gets 10 sacks in 2012, but that's really his game. He's not a three-down player yet." He still isn't, and is a total liability against the run, as we saw against Atlanta in the playoffs. He finished with 8.0 sacks, but has plenty of development left if he wants to become more than a situational player. I think you want more of a complete player at that point in the draft. Still, this was an exceptional draft, a very good one in terms of immediate value and likely a defining one for the franchise based on Wilson alone.

Seahawk Sailor wrote:Without looking at it, I can say it probably was, but only as part of the sentence. The whole sentence would read: "You're going to have to fork over some cold, hard cash if you're going to find out whether I say I'm an ignorant tool."

Awesome (for lack of better cliches) post! Why the hell people want to listen, watch or read what he says is beyond me. Iget it. He was in the right place at the right time and I'll give him that. By right place at the right time, I mean he was doing the whole mock draft player evaluations before it became what it is today and I have to give him credit for it. But cmon mang!! Anymore you can go anywhere and get this type of information without the big haired ego.He whiffs more often than he hits.

I like English's assestments as well as any (disagree a little on #15 though).

" The one pick I really questioned then and still feel the same way about is Bruce Irvin at No. 15 overall"

Did ANYONE else watch the draft and think that the ONE pick he really questioned was the Bruce Irvin pick? I really had this nagging feeling that he also QUESTIONED... the RW pick.

Just saying I don't see him admitting to anything at all. He is now focusing on how he said RW was a testcase. That wasn't his focus at the time that was his escape route slid in there among all the "this isn't going to work talk"

Rat wrote:Gruden refuses to be critical of anyone. His Captain Sunshine act makes MNF almost unbearable sometimes. I don't give him any credit for taking the safe route every time.

So you're saying he took "the safe route" with his support of Wilson? I 'd say the odds were against him. He was about the only guy in RW's corner. Maybe you really meant he chose to be optimistic and that grates on you somehow？We are talking about Gruden as it relates to Russell Wilson -something he put a lot of homework into. We are not talking about Gruden as a MNF announcer.

Rat wrote:Gruden refuses to be critical of anyone. His Captain Sunshine act makes MNF almost unbearable sometimes. I don't give him any credit for taking the safe route every time.

So you're saying he took "the safe route" with his support of Wilson? I 'd say the odds were against him. He was about the only guy in RW's corner. Maybe you really meant he chose to be optimistic and that grates on you somehow？We are talking about Gruden as it relates to Russell Wilson -something he put a lot of homework into. We are not talking about Gruden as a MNF announcer.

By "safe route", I'm referring to how he gushes about everyone. You take a lot more heat when you're critical and are wrong than vice versa. He makes sure to get no enemies. Probably does that in case he decides to go back into coaching.

Gruden does keep things mostly positive on his FFCA segments talking to QB prospects, but he GUSHED about Wilson. Then at the end of the segment he looked into the camera and had a speech saying how he thought Wilson was the steal of the draft. I had never seen anything like it from Gruden before. Then you had the draft weekend theatrics where his father-like defensiveness for Wilson was palpable.

This isn't science - they are right on some, wrong on some and guess what so are 32 GM's, Head-coaches and owners.... There are undrafted players making an impact the very same season and there are first round players that are bust.

So Kiper didn't like RW well we got him in the 3rd round - clearly he wasn't alone in this thinking.......